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Sunday, March 16, 2008

The 100th post of this blog...yea!

Here is a list of what I like to do on the dairy:

1. I guess by far the best thing is taking the 4-wheeler (ATV) on rides across country; the wind in your hair, the complete sense of wild freedom, the almost running into a barbed-wire fence. I almost did that last week. I forgot husband had fenced off a section in the bottoms last spring to grow hay in. I almost took a header into it, but slowed down enough to where I was able to stop and only had the first strand of wire pushed out of alignment an inch or two. HA. Of course with the price of fuel this kind of fun requires a good excuse to get out and do...see #4 below.

2. Bottle feeding calves. This can be exasperating, but it's fun as well. When you are first starting a calf off on the bottle you can get covered in milk and slobber and whatever else they smear on you, but once they start pumping away at the bottle and their little tails are switching, it's cute. You have to be careful or they will get excited and head butt you though. They have quite a bit of power even when they are newborn.

3. Putting calves in bigger pens. It is fun to watch them get excited and run and kick their heels up. Sometimes they will hike up their tails, pin back their ears and gallop full speed ahead. Usually they stop for the fences...usually.

4. Looking for/find newborn calves. Sometimes husband will have an expectant heifer with the milking herd down in the bottoms, where you have 100 acres to search through. Searching for cow and calf is fun; like an Easter egg hunt. Sometimes, no matter where the cow may be kept, in the bottoms or up the road in the dry cow lot, sometimes the calf is hidden and you have to go looking. This is always fun when the grass is waist high (think chiggers and ticks). You'd think it'd be easy to spot a black and white calf in green grass or gray brush, but it's harder than you'd expect.

5. Raking and burning leaves. I know this isn't necessarily a dairy chore, but I like it for some reason. Maybe I am weird. I grew up where there weren't enough leaves to rake, so it's just a novelty for me I suppose.